est. 2007

Whitewater Township, Ohio, United States
My wife Julie and I purchased our property in June 2007. Our home sits on seven acres of hillside overlooking the Whitewater River valley in western Hamilton County, Ohio roughly 20 miles west of Cincinnati. The property is well wooded and boasts a pond of about 1/5th acre. Our professional careers dictate we live in Hamilton County, which makes a country setting a bit difficult to find in a county of almost 1 million people. We share the property with our son Casey (3 1/2), and a herd of domesticated animals including 2 dogs, 3 cats, 3 parrots, and 4 Blue Swedish ducks, 10 Buff Orpington chickens, not to mention my oldest hobby aquarium fish.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Almost Time for Gardening

I'm getting the itch to get my garden going. I've started several tomatoes indoors, including Better Boy, Delicious, and Cherokee Purple. The first two are hybrids I've had laying around for a several years, and was actually quite surprised when they germinated. The Cherokee Purple is a Heirloom tomato that I'm pretty "excited" about. It is said to be one of the best tasting tomatoes around. I only hope it produces well enough to justify planting it in my garden. I planted Old German tomatoes last year and wasn't impressed with the number of fruits I harvested, and it too was an heirloom. Same story with the Brandywine. So it would seem my experience with the heirlooms is less than perfect, but I'll keep trying.

I've also started yellow onion sets inside. I read about this in some magazine. I guess it will give me onions a couple of weeks earlier than most folks, but it won't be long until I can plant more in the garden, so actually I'm only gaining about a 4 week head start on those.

I'll also be growing about 100 row feet of corn, a bi color variety called Ambrosia, which I don't know much about but came recommended from my local feed store/nursery. Also can't wait for the pickling cucumbers, as they were a huge hit last year even though it was my first attempt at pickling. I hope to get more green beans from my heirloom pole beans than I got from my bush beans last year. A new addition this year is red garlic which I've never grown, as well as 3 grape plants, Thompson Seedless (2), and Pink Reliance (1). We'll see what else I can come up with between now and Mother's Day, which is the recommended planting date here in Cincinnati.

Would love to hear from everybody about what they're planting!!!!!!!!!!

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